


Clad in Yellow Like the Sun

by greygerbil



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Competence Kink, Elaborate Formal Wear Is An Unexpected Turn-on, First Kiss, M/M, Pining, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22438408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: Dorian strongarms Felix into accompanying him to a feast at the Circle of Minrathous. It goes right in ways he hadn't dared to hope.
Relationships: Felix Alexius/Dorian Pavus
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Writing Rainbow Yellow





	Clad in Yellow Like the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Asymptotical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/gifts).



If he hadn’t been so desperately in love with him, which made such turns of phrases supremely awkward, Dorian would have called Felix the brother he’d never had. He was, in any case, the sort of friend he had always needed in his life growing up as he rebelled angrily against every rule good or bad, tearing into the very fabric of the society he had been born into. Alas, there had been no calm, smiling boy at his side then to rein in the worst of his excesses; but in the end, those had eventually led him to Felix’s side, considering Dorian had met Felix’s father in a brothel, so perhaps fate still functioned as it should.

Felix was an odd person. Knowing everything Dorian did about Tevinter heirs, he would have expected Felix to have parts of dead slaves littering the basement – remains of failed blood rituals to boost his powers – and be so absolutely eroded by bitterness that talking to someone like Dorian should have left him foaming at the mouth every time. Even mages who were much stronger than Felix had fallen into patterns like this and as someone blessed with enormous talent that he used to happily squander going after drink and whores, Dorian had been the target of their vitriol often enough.

But when Gereon had dragged Dorian home like a stray dog, Felix had turned out to be not at all murderous and had struck up a friendly conversation with Dorian on the first evening. It had turned out he did not begrudge him his father’s time nor his talents. It would help, of course, that Felix had interests other than magic that he was engaged in honestly and happily – a scandalous concept in Tevinter which made Dorian like him immediately. Felix was also easy on Dorian’s own scandals, even when he carefully let it shine through that his dalliances with men were more to him than something to pass the time before the inevitable wedding. Felix would roll his eyes and laugh at his more outrageous stories, but not because they didn’t involve women, and he’d still always lie that Dorian had spent the evening in his room when Dorian was caught coming home from the taverns a little too late.

Now, a year after his arrival, Dorian and Felix were thick as thieves, as Gereon often liked to point out. It seemed to bother him less than Dorian had expected, although perhaps because he was not used to people thinking he had good sense, as it was not something Dorian’s own parents would ever have suspected of him. Trying to seduce the offspring of the man who had saved him from the uncomfortable parts of debauchery and allowed him to do more with his life than to waste it as a statement to his father would have been very foolish indeed. Also, Gereon could of course count on Felix being interested in women, as he had gone out with a fellow student of his tutor for a couple of years when he’d been younger (her being a Soporati, marriage had been off the table, though Felix had indicated the relationship had drifted apart, anyway). Dorian, whose trust in his own reason was growing thinner each day he spent in Felix’s presence, could at least temper himself with knowledge of the latter. Better not to put his hands in these nettles, right? Even if that night Felix had fallen asleep leaning against him while they were reading their separate research on his couch was such a pleasant image to return to.

The damned crush was a returning ache, but fortunately, it did not really prevent him from enjoying his time around Felix – he was too fun for that. In fact, Dorian had been looking forward for some time now to the annual feast of the Circle of Minrathous, which he had still been too wild to visit last year, having just been collected off the streets by his mentor.

However, when he asked Felix over a private supper in his chambers if he looked forward to it, Felix just shook his head.

“I never go to Circle festivities.”

“Why not?” Dorian sipped his ale and grinned. “The families of the researches are invited, aren’t they? That should be fun. I heard it’s used as a prime match-making opportunity. They take all the show-pony heirs out of the stables for those.”

“They do.” Felix hesitated, his eating knife hovering over a cut of meat. “My parents would probably not be embarrassed to bring me, but let’s just say the years I still went, it was very obvious I was more of a cart horse. Besides, their colleagues talk to me like I have never heard the first word of an incantation. It’s just awkward.”

“I understand, but please do consider that these are the kind of men and women you are planning to leave me alone with. You can’t do that to me, Felix!” Dorian admonished, reclining in his chair.

“They love you,” Felix said, raising a brow.

“Yes, which is terrible. Can you imagine having the approval of people like that? What does that even say about me?”

Finally, Felix chuckled, which had been Dorian’s aim, and he felt a little flicker of warmth in his chest.

“You’ll be busy all evening flirting with the other apprentices,” Felix said as he speared his meat. “It’ll be fine.”

“But I won’t have anyone to gossip with.”

“You can tell me about it later.”

Though Felix looked collected as ever, Dorian could tell from his polite but dogged resistance that those events had probably been a special kind of torture in his younger years. He was usually quite eager to follow Dorian into all sorts of trouble.

No, Dorian decided, it would not do to have Felix hide out here in the Asariel estate because the braggarts at the Circle had chased him off. His friend deserved better than that.

“You still owe me a favour, remember? I got you that copy of Merwald’s new treatise on linear geometry.”

Sometimes, it paid to know traders off the high streets of the Gilded Quarter. Felix had grabbed Dorian’s hands in his enthusiastic gratitude and held on to them for long enough that it had started to feel deliberate, though Dorian knew he’d just been distracted talking about affine spaces. Dorian hadn’t done it for that specific reaction, of course, but it certainly hadn’t hurt.

Felix looked nonplussed. “You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “But why do you want me to go so badly?”

“Because I’m selfish and I like you more than them,” Dorian said with a shrug.

Felix smiled a little.

“If you insist.”

“Absolutely.”

Dorian emptied his cup of wine.

-

Dorian, Gereon and Livia had already taken the lavishly decorated family coach into Minrathous in the morning, as they had participated in the various committee discussions that preceded the event at night, but Dorian had made Felix promise him that he would take the smaller carriage to follow them. It was not such a long ride from Asariel that Felix could not have managed on horseback, but Dorian had no interest in staying sober enough to still sit in a saddle, or in driving back with Gereon and Livia, who usually left before the real fun began.

Felix had always been a man of his word, so Dorian was not surprised to see the slim, black-wood carriage among the swarm of vehicles coming up to the tower. What he had not anticipated was that Felix, who preferred to dress in the sober way of Tevinter nobles, had pulled an elaborate, old-fashioned robe out of some corner of his closet that Dorian had never known to exist. It was long and belted at the hips, flowing in layers of yellow, Felix’s favourite colour, and embellished with golden thread. His dark curls, which were usually pulled back in a tight ponytail, fell open on his shoulders. Dorian had encouraged him not to crop his hair short some time ago – Felix was always one for practicality, but Dorian wanted to push him towards a little flair – and now congratulated himself on that sage advice.

“I figured I should dress for the occasion. I used to wear this back in the day. Is it too much?” Felix asked, as Dorian greeted him on the stairs.

“Too much? I need to take you out more often.”

Felix smiled as he looked him up and down. “You look good, too.”

“I always do.” Next to Dorian, Felix would have seemed subtle even in robes that actually were overdone. He quite enjoyed embellishing his garments with gem-studded belts and all the jewellery he could find to stand out a among his dustier Circle acquaintances. “Let’s go inside.”

Felix nodded his head with an apprehensive smile.

-

Gereon and Livia were pleasantly surprised to see their son, but did not look unhappy to surrender him to Dorian again while the rest of the parents Dorian saw kept a tight grasp on their most promising sons and daughters. After procuring some Antivan plum wine and colourful sugared fruits for Felix and him, Dorian headed for a group of apprentices he knew, who, by virtue of lesser achievements, had escaped the first round of public presentation. It only occurred to him as they had already been spotted that he was leading Felix into a gaggle of people currently probably very eager to prove how much better they were than somebody, as their own families had already winnowed them from the top ranks.

At first, of course, they all had to shake hands and exchange excited greetings, though, smiling ear to ear. It was the way of the Gilded Quarter.

“We haven’t seen you in ages! Where have you been, Felix?” Astoria asked, clasping her hands before her. She was a tall woman with warm eyes and a gentle smile that Dorian had found to be an excellent mask.

“I have been to my parent’s speeches when they showed new findings,” Felix pointed out, “but it’s true I never stayed long afterwards. I had to return to my own tutoring sessions.”

Dorian thought that Astoria and her peers would have known that Felix had indeed been here if they’d ever showed up to any speeches at all.

“Ah, yes. How is _that_ going?” she asked, as if inquiring about a young child’s doll house games.

“Very well. I have decided to focus on mathematics,” Felix said and Dorian expected him to elaborate, but he’d apparently hit just the right length for an answer, as Astoria’s eyes were already moving elsewhere. Even a Tevinter mage should be expected to talk about something else but themselves a tiny bit longer than that, Dorian found. Mathematics were, after all, an important adjacent field to thaumaturgy.

“He’s received an invitation from Orlais to visit their Cirlce in the summer after he presented a few of his theories to them,” Dorian pushed.

“Orlais? Well, that could be interesting. Would you even have to stay in the Cirlce, though?” Hermatus, another student whom Dorian knew from shared lectures Gereon had taken him to, interjected. The grin on his face was ugly.

“They’re quite strict,” Felix said with a pale smile.

“Well, that’s the south for you,” a young woman Dorian did not know said with a shrug. “I don’t know how those mages do it. I’d do _anything_ to come to Tevinter. Maybe even you could find a wife there, Felix...”

She winked. Felix said nothing, but others were louder in their approval of her joke. Meanwhile, Dorian tried desperately to make eye contact with anyone in the room that he knew so he could grab Felix by the arm and leave. Were it him on the chopping block, Dorian would have had no qualms relishing in enumerations of the various weaknesses of the group, but interjecting too harshly on Felix’s behalf would only leave him looking weaker and let the pack smell blood. Years of experience with spoiled noble brats had taught Dorian the ropes of such conversations. 

“Remember back when you still came here sometimes?” Hermatus asked Felix, crossing his arms over his chest. “I have been working on the same sort of research you were dabbling in it. Mine is more advanced, of course. Hard to understand lifewards if you can’t cast one.”

“Yes, I suppose,” Felix said, looking into his goblet.

Dorian lifted his head. Just a fortnight ago, Felix had given him a very concise summary of recent studies on healing spells, which had apparently been the area he’d tried to establish himself in when still studying magic. He would bet his arm on the fact that Felix knew more about them than Hermatus, who spent most lectures whispering with friends in the very back. Why would Felix not take him on?

But Felix had only started weighing in on topics of magic in Dorian’s research as recently as a couple of months ago, when they had already become close friends. Perhaps a lifetime of being told he could not understand what was in front of him would, understandably, lead someone to start doubting his own sense.

No, Dorian couldn’t leave it at that. Besides, someone had to wipe the stupid grin of Hermatus’ face.

“Actually,” Dorian said, “I think Felix has kept up with some of that research. Why don’t you tell him what you are working on right now, Hermatus?”

Hermatus raised a brow at Dorian and Felix turned to him, looking incredulous. Dorian felt a little bad about twisting his arm into a challenge, but he knew that Felix could win this one, so he just shrugged.

“I’m developing a spell for a lifeward that can keep multiple people targeted at once. It would help our armies,” Hermatus said proudly.

Military research was what everyone went for when they had no other ideas, as it was popular with the magisters, who needed every leg up in their endless war with the Qunari. Dorian was unsurprised.

“I see,” Felix said carefully. “Have you talked to Paulina Nerva in Verantium about that?”

“No, why would I?” Hermatus asked, frowning. “Who is that?”

“She is at the forefront of those trying to minimise the effect that using blood has on casting and receiving healing magic,” Felix explained.

“That’s not a problem if you use your own blood,” Hermatus said slowly, rolling his eyes and glancing at Astoria, who grinned.

“Yes, but you are talking about soldiers,” Felix said, a little more confidently now. “The Archon says they are permitted to use foreign blood in combat, since it’s naturally going to be available. Besides, even going for your own blood does hamper the usage of lifewards because healing magic is so fickle. It’s not a great margin, but from Lady Nerva’s research, I think the numbers would come down to,” he paused for a moment to think, “five to seven percent slow-down to establish the link to the spirit, give or take the strength of the user. A few seconds can safe or doom lives in a battle.”

“Well – they will need them, anyway,” Hermatus said uncertainly.

“That’s true. But maybe strengthening barrier spells would be a more useful short-term solution for people who employ blood until your research has gone further?” Felix glanced at Hermatus. “Could that work? I’ve never really gone into barriers, but don’t they draw from the raw Fade?”

“I guess so. I mean...” Hermatus paused. “Spirits could still be guiding them.”

“They don’t. Barriers are spirit spells, but they don’t need an actual full-fledged spirit to be called upon as a protector, unlike a lifeward,” Dorian interjected, smiling broadly. “If using blood slows barrier spells down, it’s to such a small degree that it’s not going to matter for a halfway competent mage. They should be able to keep up a stable barrier pattern, anyway.” He paused, looking pointedly at Hermatus. “But I’m sure your research is going to be important to the military, too, someday. You might want to write to this Lady Nerva, though.”

-

Suddenly, the group of apprentices did not seem quite so eager to talk to Felix anymore and within a few minutes of idle chatter, they dispersed. Dorian and Felix wandered over to a display of magically altered flowers covering the northern wall of the room in a cascade of green and gold.

“You have a lot of confidence in me,” Felix said, after taking a deep breath.

“Where is _your_ confidence? You’re not usually a shrinking violet,” Dorian said, shaking his head. “You know these apprentices better than me, I assume, if you’ve tagged along with your father for so many years. Did Hermatus or Astoria really _ever_ feel like the kind of people who could intellectually intimidate you? Somehow, I have a hard time believing that.”

Felix eyed a golden flower, which emitted a quiet, pleasant melody. Dorian wondered whose project this was.

“But Hermatus is right that I don’t have any first-hand experience and never will,” Felix said.

“I’m pretty sure you never saw a negative number of things in real life, either, and you never will. That doesn’t mean you don’t handle negative numbers well, though.”

Felix smiled and turned away from the flowers.

“I don’t know. I think see a negative number of people wishing to engage with Impetus Fergus, not that it helps them,” he murmured, gently tipping the stem of his goblet the young magister’s way.

Laughing, Dorian leaned against the wall. Escaping Fergus – whose high opinion of himself and his research was only surpassed by his wish to hear himself speak –, was a well-known and extremely difficult game they all had to play in the Circle.

“He is working on temporal magic right now, like your father. I have to talk to him all the time. Pity me.”

“Does it frustrate him as much as it does the two of you?”

“No, that would require self-reflection. I don’t see that he has more results than us, though.” Dorian paused. The talk about his research had brought a thought back to his head. “Speaking of frustrating problems, I meant to borrow a book from the library today,” he said, snapping his fingers. “I think I will get it now.”

“How?” Felix asked, placing his cup down on a small wooden table. “The library is closed down this late.”

Grinning, Dorian leaned closer.

“Let’s just say I definitely don’t have a key because I once had a brief fling with one of the librarians who didn’t quite care where my hands were going under his shirt.”

Felix shook his head at him, but had to grin. “Run,” he said. “I will cover for you if anyone asks.”

-

When Dorian returned, Felix was speaking to his father, who looked up expectantly as Dorian approached. Dorian held the book behind his back, sidled up to Felix and pressed it into his hand. His friend slipped it wordlessly between the folds of his expansive robes while never taking his gaze off his father.

“There you are. Did you find Elena?” Felix asked Dorian.

“No, she must have gone home already. I’ll get her next week,” Dorian said with a shrug before he turned to Gereon. “Is something wrong?”

“Enchanter Traian Levar wants you to explain your research into temporal pockets to him.” Gereon raised a brow. “I think he wishes to make it a debate.”

“Oh, he most certainly does. The man used to teach at a Circle I was thrown out of,” Dorian said, grinning at Gereon. “I’ll prove to him what a superior teacher you are.” He glanced at Felix. “Are you coming? I could need a little cheering from the sidelines.”

“Only if you have good arguments,” Felix said playfully.

When Dorian stood with Gereon to debate Traian Levar and his two apprentices, a crowd formed quickly, but Felix remained closest, holding Dorian’s book under the fabric of his robes and smiling at him as Dorian picked apart the enchanter who had once sat Dorian down alone in his study and told him the only place he was fit for was the gutter.

-

“Careful there.”

Dorian offered Felix a hand from inside the carriage and hauled him up. Alcohol had always affected Felix’s body first. He could still have pleasant and absolutely coherent conversations even as he struggled to stand upright and apparently, he’d had just a little too much this evening. Dorian wouldn’t complain, as it was adorable to see him falling all over himself while still being embarrassed enough to notice.

“I think you forgot this on me,” Felix said, tumbling down on the bench next to Dorian as he held the book to him with an unsteady hand.

“I wouldn’t have picked such tight-fitting robes if I had known I would go borrowing things,” Dorian admitted. “I do look so very fetching in them, though.”

Felix laughed. His cheeks were flushed from the drink and his robes had gained some creases and wrinkles from hiding the book for the better part of the night. After the debate, Dorian and him had joined a few other discussions and with more wine in him and Dorian at his side, Felix had actually started to pay back a few of the swings taken at him, which Dorian had enjoyed for Felix’s sake as well as because he loved seeing a handsome man who could hold his own when being drilled on theories of demonic manifestation.

They sat in silence for a while as the carriage pulled out into the main street of Minrathous. Thick curtains hung before the windows, shutting them up in their own space lit by a magic blue fire in a crystal ball hanging from the ceiling. Dorian flipped through the book.

“Thank you for bringing me tonight,” Felix said quietly. “I had fun.”

Dorian looked up and saw that Felix had been watching him.

“That just proves you should listen to me all the time.”

Smiling, Felix leaned forward and gave him a hug. It was friendly, with distance between their chests, until the left wheel of the carriage hit a hole in the road and Felix, with not a lick of balance left in him, almost pushed Dorian into the wall, falling on him with his whole weight.

“My apologies,” he said, as he did his best to get back into his own seat.

“Oh, don’t worry, you can do that again if you’d like,” Dorian mumbled and immediately cursed himself that his first instinct to calm his nerves was always to say something irreverent. He’d told himself so many times that flirting with Felix was out of the question and here he was stammering a bad come-on like a dumb boy just because Felix had hugged him.

Felix looked at him for a moment. Then, quite deliberately, he put his arms around Dorian’s neck and squeezed him. The embrace went on much too long for a friendly show of gratitude and though there was a distinct possibility that Felix couldn’t figure out how to sit up straight again in his current state, Dorian didn’t think he’d be holding on quite so tightly if that was the only problem. When Felix lifted his head off Dorian’s shoulder, their faces were only inches apart.

Good decisions had never been Dorian’s strong suit. He kissed Felix and since this was probably the first and last chance he’d get to do so, he slipped his tongue in his mouth, pulled him up into his lap, and continued kissing him until Felix was stuttering hot gasps into his mouth.

Finally leaning back, Dorian gave him a tight smile. “So what would you prefer?” he asked, keeping his voice casual. “Am I blaming this on the drink tomorrow or do we just never, ever mention it again?”

Felix chuckled quietly.

“Perhaps we could talk about it instead when we’re sober,” he suggested, resting his head comfortably on Dorian’s shoulder again.

It sounded almost reasonable if anything about this could have been, if any other man of his own station that Dorian had ever kissed hadn’t started denying his attraction to Dorian the moment their mouths were parted or their trousers were back on. Dorian’s heart beat as loud as a drum as he smiled.


End file.
